The Mark of Zorro ***** (1920, Douglas Fairbanks Sr, Marguerite De La Motte, Robert McKim) – Classic Movie Review 2313

Director Fred Niblo’s 1920 adventure movie is a bona fide silent classic, based on the novel The Curse of Capistrano by Johnston McCulley (first published in All-Story Weekly), in which a dandified 19th-century nobleman called Don Diego Vega returns from Spain to his family home in California.

Seeing the corruption of the rich and suppression of the poor, the seemingly idiotic fop takes on the persona of the courageous vigilante Zorro and dons the cape and mask of his alter ego, and sets about righting wrongs and protecting the oppressed. It’s another version of The Scarlet Pimpernel, of course, just reset in old Spanish California.

Douglas Fairbanks Sr is hilarious as the foppish Don Diego Vega, bringing out all the warm humour of the piece, and suitably dashing and wonderfully athletic as Zorro, an early version of the caped crusader, so he’s a precursor to the 1930s superheroes, and the bridge between The Scarlet Pimpernel and The Phantom and Batman.

Marguerite De La Motte also stars as the lovely Lolita Pulido, who falls for Zorro when he saves her from the wicked Capitán Juan Ramon (Robert McKim) who is longing to seduce her. [Spoiler alert] After a superlative sword-fight sequence that sees Fairbanks Sr’s swashbuckling at its best, all is revealed and Lolita becomes Don Diego’s betrothed, they finally marry and it all ends with a kiss.

Director Niblo keeps the pace racing along, ensuring that there’s never a dull moment in this wonderful silent classic.  Fairbanks Sr’s climbing stunts in the last reel are still astonishing, making it all look so easy, despite his chunky physique.

And, as well as starring and producing, Fairbanks Sr also writes the screenplay under a pseudonym as Elton Thomas. Also in the cast are Noah Beery Sr as Sgt. Pedro Gonzales, Charles Mailes as Don Carlos Pulido, Claire McDowell as Doña Catalina Pulido, Snitz Edwards,  Sidney De Gray, George Periolat and Noah Beery Jr (in his film debut).

At the film’s premiere in New York, the cinema crowds went mad and the police had to be called in to restore order. The Mark of Zorro was remade in 1940 and in 1974, and again in 1998 as The Mask of Zorro.

There are various versions, including the 1970 alternate running 90 minutes, the Academy archive print running 97 minutes and the DVD running 107 minutes colour toned in sepia or blue tints for the night scenes. The TCM version provides an effective musical soundtrack.

© Derek Winnert 2015 Classic Movie Review 2313

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